For your reference: that’s 5 million gigabytes worth of data. And, according to its ‘fact sheet’ (PDF), users have uploaded over a billion files to date.

Not bad when you consider that the company only announced its public beta program last June.

As for the Chrome plugin: basically, it lets users download content – and large files in particular – directly from their browser to their Bitcasa accounts, using the company’s deduplication techniques to optimize download speeds.

Gauda promises more goodies are coming before the end of the year, specifically mentioning support for other browsers.

Bitcasa was founded by former Mastercard and Mozy employees and is backed by $8.5 million in funding from investors like Horizons Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Samsung Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital and CrunchFund.

The company was originally founded in July 2011 but made its public debut in September 2011 at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Robin Wauters is the European Editor of The Next Web.
He describes himself as a hopeless cyberflâneur, a lover of startups, his family and Belgian beer.
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